An idea whose time has come
By Bruce Walker
web posted November 14, 2005
What is the solution to our national security problems?
Balkanization. Those unfamiliar with history (almost anyone who
has passed through public schools and our system of universities)
may never have heard that term, but it was all the terror in
foreign ministries throughout most of the 20th Century. But
Balkanization has worked in the Soviet Union, where constituent
republics have become peaceful, free and relatively democratic.
It has worked in the "Velvet Divorce," the naturally ending of that
unnatural union of Czechs and Slovaks in the former
Czechoslovakia. The smaller states of Slovenia, Croatia and
Bosnia work better than the old polyglot Yugoslavia. Pakistan
and Bangladesh get on better than the single nation of West
Pakistan and East Pakistan ever did.
Balkanization would work well in Iraq: split this unnatural
imperium into three natural nations of Shia, Kurds and Sunnis.
America could offer to defend each from aggressive invasion by
the others, but then leave these nations, naturally suspicious of
each other, to rely upon American friendship as the sure
guarantee of political success.
Neighboring Iran should also be Balkanized into natural nations
of Baluchi, Arabs, Kurds and other people who never belonged
in a Persian-speaking greater population who barely
constitute half of Iran. These new nations would have a powerful
interest in keeping Teheran non-nuclear, and America could
provide them with all the muscle and influence to keep the
mullahs in line. Eventually, as Baluchistan and Kurdistan thrived
while the Persians remained poor and grew poorer, the Persian
government would be forced to reform (allow genuine freedom)
and so implode.
The world is filled with nations that are not nations at all, but
would Balkanization create hostility to America? More hostility
than now? How? What this policy would do is to make some
peoples truly our friends, make it dangerous to be our enemies,
and knock anti-Americanism back on its heels. Democracy and
freedom are wonderful concepts, but national independence of
captive peoples has vastly more appeal.
With few exceptions, those who rant most against us stand on
shaky ground. China, for example, not only occupies Mongolia
and Tibet as colonies, but about 125 million other captive
peoples who speak different languages and have different
traditions. Ironically, it was the Left that coined the term "national
liberation movements." If will adopt that policy, then we will win
this Fourth World War.
Balkanization is also the answer to Muslim unrest in France and
other parts of Europe as well. Some conservative pundits have
fretted that Muslim radicals, who effectively control many French
towns now, may soon demand autonomy. The French
government should go much farther than that. It should define
geographically three or four areas of France which are heavily
Muslim and insist that a plebesite be held to determine whether
the areas should become independent nations or should be
subject, fully, to French law.
If the people vote to be French citizens and part of France, then
that point should be rhetorically hammered home constantly: you
not only immigrated into France, but you want to remain part of
the French nation: so shut up. If the people voted to establish
modest independent nations (between the size of Montenegro
and Luxemburg), then the new citizens of these new nations
could control their own destinies, but not the politics of France
or the welfare benefits produced by the French taxpayer. Border
guards could let in guest workers, but "rioting" across national
boundaries could, and should, be treated as a formal act of war
against France.
Is there a danger that this might spread to America? No, there is
a hope that this might spread to America. What Europeans
called Balkanization is what we called sovereign state
governments, the best antidote for people living together
unhappily (if you don't like it, move to another state) and the best
guard against an overbearing federal bureaucracy and judiciary.
Balkanization is good and we should encourage it everywhere
and in almost every condition. Small nations cannot afford
terrorism, nuclear weapons making, oppression of their own
peoples, or whining about how wretched they are. So let us
Balkanize the unhappy parts of Asia; let us encourage the French
and other Europeans to pursue the successful path of
Balkanization that followed in the wake of the end of the Cold
War as a way to solve indigestible minorities. And let us revive
the idea of sovereign states, which will solve many of our
problems as well. It is an idea whose time has come.
Bruce Walker is a senior writer with Enter Stage Right. He is
also a frequent contributor to The Pragmatist and The Common
Conservative.
Enter Stage Right -- http://www.enterstageright.com